A major remodeling of our EcoHostel began in 2010 and continued through 2011. It is expected to be completed by late 2012. With the dormitories and kitchen off-line during construction (the original building, dating to 1972, was taken back to a hole in the ground), we have been operating on a reduced course schedule. We expect to return to service and a have our usual full calendar in 2013. In the meantime we are accepting invitations to teach in other venues. Look for us this year in Belize, Mexico, Argentina, Japan, Estonia, and Spain.

We also expect to have our biofuels building completed and operational by early 2013, providing locally grown “Permafuels” for our fleet of biodiesel vehicles. Other construction plans include a bicycle kitchen, stove-making shop, more backpacker cabins, and a revitalized bookstore. We would also like to launch our site tavern, The Green Dragon, as soon as the winter of 2012-2013.

At our ETC campus, which is now also a campus for Gaia University, we continue to provide, on a reduced schedule, courses in permaculture, natural building, solar electric installation, gourmet and medicinal mushrooms, herbal medicine, building biology, and edible forest gardening, among other workshops. We also continue to host the annual Kids to the County summer camp, now in its 25th year, 16th at ETC. In 2007 we received support from the US Department of Agriculture Rural Development program to launch our Transition Towns and Financial Permaculture initiatives in Tennessee.

We continue to provide immersion apprenticeship programs, usually from 3 to 5 each year, ranging in length from 4 to 8 weeks.

Some years ago it became apparent to us that we needed to get the ecovillage message out in as many new media and social networks as we could. Today we produce three weekly podcasts and several less regular ones from the ETC studios. The most popular of these is the C-realm Podcast hosted by KMO. Kevin M. O’Connor is ETC’s site caretaker and year-round media manager. The “C” in C-realm stands for community. Also “consciousness.” Also “collapse.” There are now more than 5,000 weekly subscribers. Slightly less popular but rising is ETC Voices: interviews with staff, visitors and apprentices at the ETC. Both of these are also syndicated to community radio stations, beginning with The Farm’s own WUTZ-FM, so the full audience size is unknown. These also have group followings on Facebook and their own blogs. We have staff blogs and apprentice blogs and a host of Facebook pages on all manner of topics.

In 2012 being at ETC is like being inventor of a better mousetrap at the onset of a Great Depression. You have the right product and you are just waiting for the world to beat a path to your door.